is-the-snake-video-cute:

Not a strange question at all!

On snakes, scars tend to heal over with attempted regrowth of scales. Scars often have a weird scale pattern as a result – the scales over the scar might have a weird texture or color. Look at this ball python with a burn scar over their entire spine – the scar is noticeably a different color and texture.

In my experience, a lot of scars on snakes will retain scale growth, but that’s not always true, especially for scars on the head:

Deep wounds tend to heal over white. In wildlife rehab, we mostly see these in snakes who were involved in car accidents or had run-ins with lawnmowers.

But that can happen with any deep wound, like these on a ball python from rat bites.

Deep wounds on wild snakes that don’t heal without veterinary help may look puckered and a bit gruesome:

Lizards are more prone to have scars that are missing scales.

Scars on crocodilians look a little different. Instead of scales like snakes and lizards, crocodilians have what we call “scutes.” On a crocodilian, scutes are large, hardened plates, and instead of shedding at once they’re constantly shedding in teeny-tiny flakes (like us!). On crocodilians, scars look like divots in the scutes, and they will fade somewhat with time (again, like people).

Tags:

#snakes #lizards #crocodiles #biology #the more you know #injury cw #this post was queued because my to-reblog list is too long and I didn’t want to dump it on you all at once